marble

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   paint or stain like marble

   marble paper

2. 2
   noun

   A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.

   Open thy marble jaws, O tomb / And hide me, earth, in thy dark womb.

3. 3
   noun

   Statues made from marble.

   The Elgin Marbles were originally part of the temple of the Parthenon.

4. 4
   noun

   The marbling in meat.

   The marble is graded using the Australian system.

5. 5
   verb

   To cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.

   The small clouds which chequered the sky, as they passed along, spread their flitting shadows on the distant mountains, and seemed to marble them; a beauty which I do not recollect has struck any painter.

6. 6
   verb

   To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.

   Scent the entire batch and then color half with the blue colorant. Pour both parts back into your soap pot. Do not stir. Pour in a circular motion into a block mold. The pouring action will cause the soap to marble.

7. 7
   verb

   To cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.

   Their flesh is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of their fat among the lean so as to marble it. The beef is of a better quality and they take on fat much easier.

8. 8
   verb

   To become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.

   We've gone mostly to black bulls — Angus bulls because today the packers like black cattle. They seem to marble better.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English marble, marbre; from Anglo-Norman and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek μάρμαρος (mármaros), perhaps related to μαρμάρεος (marmáreos, “gleaming”). The forms from French displaced Old English marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.